Magnus’s room felt entirely different from the last time they had been there.
Instead of quiet, the room felt far too crowded with voices spilling from the end of the corridor that led to Magnus’s room.
“Why is it so loud?” Elara asked Kael, who had said nothing at all since they left the gymnasium.
Kael stayed silent.
Even earlier, when they had walked the length of the hallway and every student whispered about them as they passed, Kael had remained just as still as he was now.
Only the grip of his hand tightened as he held Elara’s.
They were almost in Magnus’s room.
Several Ravencrest guards, whom Elara recognized by their uniforms, stood along the walls with grave expressions, while a number of senior teachers, most of whom Elara didn’t know, sat around the long table where Magnus usually held his important meetings.
The smell of burning candles mixed faintly with something metallic, like the residue of a spell recently cast, hung heavy in the air.
The noise that had filled the hall a moment ago fell utterly silent the instant they saw Elara and Kael arrive.
Everyone looked tense, Magnus included.
Everyone in that room had come for one reason: the case of the intruder who had been threatening Ravencrest’s security for days.
Elara’s gaze went straight to the figure kneeling in the center of the room.
A man wearing the uniform of a Ravencrest guard.
His hands were not bound in chains, but two massive werewolf guards stood behind him, close enough to make it clear he wasn’t there as an ordinary guard.
Beside him stood another man in dark, formal clothing, elegant with touches of red as an accent across his garments and adornments.
But what caught Elara’s attention was the crest pinned over the left side of his chest, similar to the one she had seen days before on Serise Blackthorn’s uniform.
Elara didn’t know how much influence the Blackthorn family held in Ravencrest, or in Ordovia for that matter, but the way the man stood, his expression, his every gesture, told her he wasn’t from an ordinary vampire family, even if he lacked the elegance of Princess Elsinne Calemont.
“Elara.” Kael’s voice pulled her gaze away from the Blackthorn man.
Only then did she notice that since stepping into the room, her body had grown tense without her realizing it.
Kael stood beside her with his usual cold expression, but Elara could see something different in his eyes.
Wariness.
Elara knew that wariness wasn’t aimed only at the man kneeling in the middle of the room, but at everyone present.
Magnus lifted his gaze as they drew near.
“You’ve arrived right on time,” Magnus said.
Elara and Kael took their place beside Magnus, facing the man in the center of the room at a distance that felt reasonably safe.
Even now, Kael still held Elara’s hand and kept her body angled slightly behind his own.
Magnus let out a long breath before he spoke.
“As you both know, we’ve been investigating the vampire who managed to breach Ravencrest’s western territory.”
His gaze shifted to the guard in the center of the room.
Then Magnus continued, “We found someone with the access, the opportunity, and the motive to have been at that location that night.”
The room fell silent again.
Every eye moved from Elara to the guard and back.
Elara herself glanced between the guard and Kael.
Kael’s brow furrowed, his gaze fixed straight ahead on the guard.
As for the guard, he met Elara’s stare with a boldness and calm that seemed almost defiant.
“His name is Arvei Vross,” Magnus went on.
“One of the guards serving under the House of Blackthorn, stationed here at Ravencrest.”
Elara frowned slightly.
She had a moment of trouble processing Magnus’s words.
It took her a few seconds to understand that this guard was no ordinary Ravencrest guard at all, but someone tied directly to that distinguished family.
Kael narrowed his eyes, skeptical.
“How do you know that?
There wasn’t even a trace of his scent out there.”
The question turned several heads toward Kael, Magnus included, but Magnus didn’t answer right away.
The question had already answered itself.
Arvei lifted his head.
“You picked the wrong trail.
I could hardly go announcing myself through the usual routes.” His voice was flat, without a trace of hesitation.
The man made no effort to defend himself at all, far too calm for someone accused of being an intruder.
Elara felt something strange settle over her.
“What were you doing there?” Kael asked.
Arvei met his gaze head on.
For a few seconds, Elara sensed something pass between them that she couldn’t quite understand.
Kael looked at the man like someone searching for a crack in a lie.
Arvei Vross, meanwhile, looked back at Kael like someone who already knew how this conversation would end.
“I don’t owe anyone an explanation for all of it,” Arvei answered.
The atmosphere in the room shifted at once.
Kael took a step forward, but Magnus raised a hand to stop him.
Magnus looked at Arvei.
“Did you meet with another vampire there?
Answer honestly.
You know my magic can turn your lie into a blade, sharp enough to run straight through your chest.”
Magnus’s words made Elara take a step back.
Without meaning to, she held her breath and let it out as quietly as she could.
She watched closely.
To Elara’s surprise, Arvei Vross answered the question with a faint, curling smile.
“Yes.”
There was no denial, and no pain flickered across his expression.
He wasn’t lying.
But the longer Elara listened, the stronger the strange feeling growing inside her became.
Everything about this was too easy.
“What’s your purpose?” Magnus asked.
For the first time, Arvei didn’t answer right away.
His gaze drifted, not to Magnus, not to Kael, but to Elara.
That stare made her hold her breath once more.
There was something in the man’s eyes that unsettled her.
Not because she was afraid, but because that stare carried a hatred so plain it couldn’t be mistaken for anything else.
“This human has caused so much trouble in this world, and yet all of you still protect her?” Arvei let out a mocking huff, then continued in that same steady tone, “Out of every strong race gathered here, at least one of us has to stay sane enough to understand that a human like her isn’t meant to be protected.
She’s meant to be destroyed.”
Beside Elara, Kael let out a low growl, holding back his fury.
His jaw tightened again.
Elara could only tighten her grip a little, hoping Kael would understand that he needed to hold his emotions, at least for now.
“I don’t need to explain something you should already understand.
I’m not lying.” Arvei closed his statement with proof, giving his body a small, deliberate shake to show he was perfectly fine.
“Arvei Vross.” Magnus’s voice stayed calm, but there was pressure behind every word.
“You were stationed at Ravencrest to protect this academy.
Whatever your reasons, your actions have put the safety of this entire territory at risk.”
Arvei didn’t argue.
He only said, “I know.”
That answer made Elara raise an eyebrow.
He knew this was how it would end?
Arvei’s calm unsettled her more than his confession had.
Beside her, Kael’s grip on her hand loosened for just a moment, as though he too needed a beat to take in what they’d just heard, before it tightened again.
Magnus turned his gaze to the House of Blackthorn’s representative.
“How does the House of Blackthorn intend to handle this?”
The man bearing the Blackthorn crest stepped forward.
“The House of Blackthorn had no knowledge of this and never gave any order for such an act,” he answered, firm and unhurried.
“The name Arvei Vross no longer represents our family, effective immediately.
We’re prepared to leave the entirety of this decision in the Academy’s hands.”
There was no objection, no further defense offered.
A family as powerful as the Blackthorns cast one of its own guards aside just like that, as though Arvei had already been written off as a loss they were willing to leave behind.
Elara glanced at Arvei, searching his face for some reaction.
There was none.
The man didn’t even look surprised to hear his own family disown him in front of everyone.
Magnus gave a slow nod, then let his gaze sweep across the room, as though making certain no one meant to object before he delivered his final decision.
Several senior teachers exchanged glances.
One of the werewolf guards behind Arvei let out a low growl, barely audible, a sign of impatience waiting for the verdict to fall.
“Very well,” Magnus said at last, his voice carrying through the hushed room.
“Ravencrest will strip Arvei Vross, guard of the House of Blackthorn, of every right and duty within the territory of Ravencrest Academy.
Furthermore, Ravencrest humbly requests that the House of Blackthorn sever all ties with Arvei Vross, so that no shadow of doubt falls upon the House of Blackthorn or Ravencrest.”
The verdict landed like the fall of a hammer.
No one argued against it.
Even Arvei only bowed his head slightly, as though he had known those words would come from Magnus’s mouth from the very start.
The Blackthorn representative gave Magnus a short bow, then turned and walked out of the room without another word.
His steps were quick and composed, as though his business there had ended the moment the verdict was dropped.
The two massive werewolf guards stepped forward, flanking Arvei on either side to lead him out.
The senior teachers and the remaining guards stayed behind in the room, some exchanging quiet murmurs, others simply watching in silence.
Elara finally saw the tension in Kael’s expression ease, if only slightly, though his eyes stayed wary.
But after only a few steps, Arvei stopped.
One of the guards gave him a gentle tug, but he wouldn’t move.
He turned.
His stare fell first on Magnus, then on Kael, before settling briefly on Elara and returning.
The whole room seemed to hold its breath, waiting for whatever he meant to say.
He delivered his final words, and the entire room froze at once.
“How much longer will you go on protecting the one reason that might bring all of Ordovia to ruin?”